Washing Machines

Agitator, impeller or front-loader:

what moves the clothes decides how hard the machine is on them. An agitator top-loader twists the load around a tall post in the middle of the tub. It scrubs work trousers and school uniforms properly, but it uses more water, wears fabric faster, and the post takes the room a bulky comforter needs. Without the post, a low impeller plate in the base rubs the clothes against each other in less water. It is gentler and fits a double-bed comforter, though a tub packed to the lid leaves dirt in the folds. A front-loader tumbles the clothes through a shallow pool and spins harder and sends the washing out drier. It wants low-suds HE detergent, and its rubber door seal should be left open to dry between washes. A washer-dryer combo does both jobs in one drum but dries a smaller load than it washes, so a full wash has to be split. If drying is all you are missing, look at dryers; for the shirts that come off the line stiff, irons and steamers.

Pounds on the tag and the spot beside the washtub:

capacity on a Guatemalan label means pounds of dry clothes. The small end of the shelf suits a couple; a household washing sheets and towels every week wants the top of the range. Before you choose, measure the gap beside the washtub, the height under the laundry-area roof with the lid raised, and every doorway between the street and the patio. On a half-covered terrace the panel takes sun and sideways rain, and plain knobs ride that out better than a touch panel, whose circuit board is the dearest part to replace.

A mid-size top-loader in quetzales, new and secondhand:

a 42-pound top-loader from Whirlpool, LG or Mabe sits around Q3,500 to Q5,000 new, and a front-loader of about 48 pounds starts near Q5,000. A used top-loader that gets through a full cycle without complaint goes for roughly Q800 to Q1,500. What the buyer is paying for is the life left in the transmission and the control board, two repairs that can cost more than the machine is worth. A washer listed as needing repair is worth what its pump, motor and panel fetch as parts.

Bearings, the lid switch and a rusty base on a used washer:

all of them show up in one short programme watched to the end, so ask to see the machine connected and with water at the tap. A washer that fills and washes but will not drain or spin may only have a blocked pump or a dead lid switch, both cheap to fix. A grinding roar as the drum picks up speed points to the bearings or the transmission, a repair that rarely pays on an older machine. A top-loader that bangs against its cabinet with a few towels inside has worn suspension rods. Tip it back and look at the base: years on a wet floor beside the washtub rust a cabinet from the feet upward. On a front-loader, fold back the door seal. Black mould wipes off; a split seal leaks onto the floor.

Moving a washer from your laundry area to a buyer’s pickup:

goes smoothly when the listing answers what a buyer would otherwise cross town to ask. Put the type and the capacity in pounds in the title, then the brand, the model number from the sticker under the lid or on the back, and how long it has been in use. Photograph the empty tub from above, the panel switched on and the base of the cabinet, and add a short clip of the spin. Say whether it is upstairs and whether the stairs are narrow: a buyer coming from Zacapa turns up with a pickup and one helper, and wants to know that will do. If you still have the transit bolts that locked a front-loader’s drum when it was new, add them: they stop the drum swinging on the ride home.